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York's Human Relations Commission funds at question

City officials will hold a special meeting Thursday in hopes of avoiding staff layoffs.

By TIM STONESIFER Daily Record/Sunday News

Updated:
10/09/2012 06:52:04 PM EDT

York, PA -

York City Council will hold a special meeting this week to vote on salary money that could make or break an embattled city agency, officials said.

The council will meet at 8:45 Thursday morning in City Council Chambers to vote on a budget transfer for the Human Relations Commission, according to Council President Carol Hill-Evans. That vote could decide the immediate fate of the commission, which was founded in 1974 to hear discrimination complaints and monitor hate crimes.

If a $10,322 transfer of salary money is not approved, the two full-time commission staffers will be laid off immediately, council members said.

The money -- from the Department of Housing and Urban Development -- is for work previously completed, Hill-Evans said. The sticking point has been transferring the funds to a salary line item, which must be approved by the council.

Hill-Evans said the transfer was on the agenda for the regular Oct. 16 meeting, but the council learned funding would run out Wednesday. The council then scheduled an emergency meeting.

Hill-Evans said she's polled the four council members and approval is likely, but cautioned there are no guarantees. She also suggested there could be ongoing financial trouble for the commission.

"This should go through," she said, "but I can't tell you what will happen from there."

Problems arose last year when the commission's salary line item was cut by more than $10,000. That budget was approved in December 2011, but shortly after that the commission determined that the council did not have the authority to make the change. The wrangling continued, with the commission later told to raise some of the money for its pay.

At this year's budget hearings, members of the commission were told they would have the same budget as last year. Seaton said at the time that the HUD funds should help with expenses.

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